On Thu, 28 Sep 2006 10:19:37 +1000, Ben Finney wrote: >> For instance a customer might want to buy a license to use your >> software on up to 5 machines at once, but still have the software >> installed on every machine in the company. > > This need is adequately served by not imposing usage restrictions. Any > effective imposition of usage restrictions is hostile to the wants of > the user.
Who is "the user"? The person who uses the software isn't always the same as the person who paid for it, or the person who'll be in trouble if the license terms aren't adhered to. Imagine you're an IT manager for a medium-to-large company who wants to use some expensive piece of software. You talk to the vendor and buy a licence to use the software on up to 5 machines at once, but you don't know who in the company will want to use it, so for convenience you want to install it on every PC in the building. Having installed it all over the shop, how can you be sure that only 5 people are using it at any one time? Do you expect your users to walk round the building asking everyone else if they're using the software, or are they more likely to just start it up and start working? Of course this argument really applies only to large, expensive commercial packages. I'd certainly agree that licence keys are often used inappropriately in a way which doesn't really benefit anyone, but this doesn't mean they don't have a place somewhere in the grand scheme of things. Mike -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list